Unable to initialize external HDD in Disk Management due to I/O error

[tommythecat]

Hi All,

I've recently ran into an almost identical problem that was described (but not resolved) in this thread.

In my case, the drive worked perfectly with my system and only recently stopped appearing in My Computer. Also, my drive is still visible and accessible on Windows XP but is not visible on my Windows 7.

I'd be grateful for any useful advice how to restore the functionlity of this drive on Windows 7.

Please let me know if you require any additional information to help resolve this issue.

Thank you!

 

[joodoo]

Hello, tommythecat.
Is the external drive used much? Is it aging? Damaged (from moisture, shock [dropping] or misuse)?
If you can, back-up all the data to another HDD.
Connect the problematic HDD to the troublesome PC.
Open an administrative command prompt > type diskpart > type list disk.
Is the drive listed?

Cheers - Happy Holidays.

 

[rraod]

It helps if you can mention the make and capacity of the external HDD.

Western Digital models usually require WD SES driver on windows 7 and sometimes gives problems if the driver is not present.

Depending on your HDD model and make, check on the manufacturer's website whether the external HDD requires any OEM drivers. If so search, download and install the drivers and again try to access the drive.

 

[tommythecat]

Hello, tommythecat.
Is the external drive used much? Is it aging? Damaged (from moisture, shock [dropping] or misuse)?

No, it's not used much and it isn't aging. Also, it certainly wasn't damaged. As I wrote, if I connect it to a different PC, it works fine.

If you can, back-up all the data to another HDD.
Connect the problematic HDD to the troublesome PC.
Open an administrative command prompt > type diskpart > type list disk.
Is the drive listed?

I just did that and the drive is listed there, although I don't see the drive in "My Computer".

Cheers - Happy Holidays.

Thanks and happy holidays

 

[tommythecat]

It helps if you can mention the make and capacity of the external HDD.

Seagate FreeAgent Go 500GB

Western Digital models usually require WD SES driver on windows 7 and sometimes gives problems if the driver is not present.

Depending on your HDD model and make, check on the manufacturer's website whether the external HDD requires any OEM drivers. If so search, download and install the drivers and again try to access the drive.

I already did that, but:

1. This drive worked fine for a year now, so why suddenly install the drivers?
2. Installing the drivers still didn't help

Thank you

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Is there any data on it that needs recovering?

If not use the clean all option. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

 

[tommythecat]

Is there any data on it that needs recovering?

If not use the clean all option. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

Unfortunately, yes -- there's data on the drive that needs recovering. Any recommended software for that?

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Copy the data over to xp. Do the diskpart, see if windows 7 see it then then copy the data back. That's the easiest way.

 

[joodoo]

Open an administrative command prompt > type diskpart > type list disk.
Is the drive listed?

I just did that and the drive is listed there, although I don't see the drive in "My Computer".

What exactly is listed in diskpart for that particular drive?
Offline/online? (see pic)


If it shows in diskpart, try running Windows disk checker (Option 2 with the /F switch) with the intent to find/fix file system errors.
diskpart
list disk
select disk (#) > # = actual value the problematic disk
chkdisk /f

Edit: has the drive been plugged into a different USB port on the Win7 machine?
Open Device Manager (Show hidden devices); is there any of these?:warn: or red marks showing?

 

[tommythecat]

Open an administrative command prompt > type diskpart > type list disk.
Is the drive listed?

I just did that and the drive is listed there, although I don't see the drive in "My Computer".

What exactly is listed in diskpart for that particular drive?
Offline/online? (see pic)

It's listed as Online

If it shows in diskpart, try running Windows disk checker (Option 2 with the /F switch) with the intent to find/fix file system errors.
diskpart
list disk
select disk (#) > # = actual value the problematic disk
chkdisk /f

I tried that and here's what I got:

DISKPART> select disk (3)
The disk you specified is not valid.
There is no disk selected.
DISKPART>

Edit: has the drive been plugged into a different USB port on the Win7 machine?
Open Device Manager (Show hidden devices); is there any of these?:warn: or red marks showing?

I enabled hidden devices but didn't see any devices with the yellow or red markings

 

[joodoo]

diskpart
list disk
select disk 3 (without the parentheses)
chkdisk /f

 

[tommythecat]

A quick update:

It seems that the behavior I'm experiencing on Windows 7 x64, I'm also experiencing on Windows XP.

Therefore, it seems that I need to:

1. Try and restore any data I can from the drive
2. Format it and make it usable again.

How can I do that if the drive is not visible in "My Computer"?

Thank you again for all your help

 

[jumanji]

Try to access the hard drive with Linux. Mount your external drive and copy the files to the internal drive (if space is available) or to another external drive.

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html

 

[tommythecat]

Try to access the hard drive with Linux. Mount your external drive and copy the files to the internal drive (if space is available) or to another external drive.

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html

Thanks Jumanji! I'll give it a try.

Edit: I see that I need to boot from the USB device that has lucid puppy, but my bios doesn't support boot from USB. Will booting from CD-rom work instead?

 

[essenbe]

Does the drive show in disk management? Right click computer, select manage, and select disk management from the left column. If it shows there, right click the drive, select change drive letter and path, then select add. Select a drive letter from the dropdown menu. It should show up in explorer then.

 

[tommythecat]

Does the drive show in disk management? Right click computer, select manage, and select disk management from the left column.

When I do that, I immediately get a dialog box saying that "You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it" and it shows me the disk. However, when I try to initalize the disk, it fails with the message "The system cannot find the file specified."

If it shows there, right click the drive, select change drive letter and path, then select add. Select a drive letter from the dropdown menu. It should show up in explorer then.

The disk is shown as "Disk 2 Unknown" and as not initialized. It doesn't appear in the list of volumes so I cannot change the drive letter.

 

[essenbe]

Try to access the hard drive with Linux. Mount your external drive and copy the files to the internal drive (if space is available) or to another external drive.

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html

Thanks Jumanji! I'll give it a try.

Edit: I see that I need to boot from the USB device that has lucid puppy, but my bios doesn't support boot from USB. Will booting from CD-rom work instead?

Yes, booting from CD will work as well. Once you copy your files off, let us know and we will try to help you reformat the drive with Partition Wizard. Look at option 2.

 

[rraod]

If the drive is visible from Command prompt, you can copy the files from command prompt.

 

[jumanji]

Try to access the hard drive with Linux. Mount your external drive and copy the files to the internal drive (if space is available) or to another external drive.

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html

Thanks Jumanji! I'll give it a try.

Edit: I see that I need to boot from the USB device that has lucid puppy, but my bios doesn't support boot from USB. Will booting from CD-rom work instead?

Yes, you can straightaway burn the ISO to a CD and boot Lucid Puppy from it.( I chose to to do it on a pendrive, since it will be useful to those who do not have an optical drive on their machine )

 

[tommythecat]

diskpart
list disk
select disk 3 (without the parentheses)

That indeed work.

chkdisk /f

This didn't work as there's no chkdisk command in Windows 7's diskpart (I typed "help" and it chkdisk didn't appear in the list of supported commands).